Crypto Space: The Final Frontier for Star Trek’s William Shatner (‘Captain Kirk’)

Crypto Space: The Final Frontier for Star Trek’s William Shatner (‘Captain Kirk’)

Star Trek actor William Shatner who “Captain Kirk” played in the original 1960s U.S. TV series (as well as several Star Trek movies) who called basic blockchain and cryptocurrency concepts “really strange” just a few months ago seems to have so well-versed in crypto that he was defending Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin against some crypto trolls on Twitter yesterday.

On 13 June 2018, a Canadian company, Solar Alliance Energy Inc, announced that it was going to develop a 165,000 square foot solar-powered crypto mining facility in Murphysboro, Illinois, and that the 87-year-old actor (and renewable energy advocate) would be the company’s spokesperson.

However, later that day, when Chicago Tribune asked Shatner in a phone interview to explain Bitcoin, he admitted to having some difficulty understanding the basic ideas of crypto:

“The concept is so, I guess the word is bizarre. You have to blank your mind and say, ‘What is blockchain, again? How does mining operate, again?’ The concepts are really strange, and yet when you begin to grasp it, it makes sense.”

Later in the view, he said that he might go to visit the crypto mining facility once it becomes operational:

“I’m in Chicago a lot, and I live in Kentucky part of the time. I might very well do that. It’s an interesting idea to see it at work because … it’s so esoteric that it’s difficult to understand.”

But yesterday, on Twitter, Shatner seemed a lot more comfortable talking about crypto. He started by sending out a tweet in which he gave a “thumbs up” to Vladik Buterin:

His viewpoints don’t take into account the fact that the code has to be audited by an auditing firm and approved by consortium or it doesn’t get accepted. 🙄 He thinks it exists in a bubble. That’s why we have ERC-20, ERC-721… ERC-1701😏